European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

There is little information available about neurological manifestations in paediatric COVID-19 patients from around the world, including India. This study aimed to identify characteristics of paediatric COVID-19 cases with neurologic involvement who were hospitalized in IMS & SUM Hospital,  Odisha. This retrospective cross-sectional study included hospitalized patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 from January 2020 to December 2022 aged 0 to 14 years.The necessary information was obtained from the patients' medical records. There were 21 cases in total. The studied group's median ages, those with neurological manifestations and those without, were 6.5, 11.0, and 5.0 years, respectively. Five COVID-19 patients experienced neurological manifestations, with headache and decreased consciousness being the most common recorded manifestations. The majority of patients, both with and without neurological manifestations, survived. In hospitalized paediatric COVID-19 cases, neurological manifestations were common. However, most of the neurological manifestations were mild and nonspecific, with headache being the most common. Although specific neurological manifestations were uncommon, paediatric COVID-19 patients, especially young infants, were at risk of developing severe encephalopathy with a fatal outcome